The “prior art” drawing shows a brush applicator of a kind known from the prior art, intended for use as a cosmetic brush. Such a brush is composed of a bundle of hair or bristles that is long, more or less, and is secured in a holder element.
A wide variety of cosmetic brushes are known from the prior art. They are used not only for applying powder, but often also for applying viscous cosmetics, i.e. ones that run the gamut from liquid to paste-like or gel-like, such as lip gloss.
Depending on the intended use, such brush applicators have a densely packed number of fine, relatively long bristles. In the context of this description, the term “bristles” is understood to broadly refer to any fiber-like structure suitable for producing a brush. These bristles are very flexible in the region of their distal ends. But below approximately the last distal quarter of their length in the proximal direction, they rest against one another more and more. Both when the brush is new and when it is influenced by the cosmetic, which tends to make the bristles stick to one another, the bristles form a kind of “block” that is significantly more rigid than the individual, fine bristles in the region of their distal ends. This gives a brush with a set of long, fine bristles its typical application properties, namely a soft brush tip, but a set of bristles that is nevertheless not overly flexible.
With prolonged use, even with careful selection of materials, a swelling of the bristle material can occur, which causes the brush as a whole to swell, thus negatively affecting its shape and application properties.
Also, especially in brushes composed of long, fine bristles, it is almost inevitable that when the brush is reinserted through the narrow neck of the bottle or stripping device, individual bristles get caught on the sides and as a result, become permanently bent so that they stick out to the side afterward. Even if individual bristles do not buckle completely, in brushes composed of long, fine bristles there is always the risk that over time, a certain “umbrella effect,” namely a certain splaying of the set of bristles, will occur.
Finally, brushes with a set of densely packed, relatively long, fine bristles are also not without problems because there is always a risk that in the region a certain distance from the distal ends of the fibers, bacteria will collect and multiply “on the inside,” so to speak, of the set of fibers constituting the brush.
To remedy this problem, numerous suggestions have been made to replace the brush-like part with a “monolithic” body composed of a flexible plastic or elastomer material, whose outer contour has roughly the same outer contour as a brush. In such an approach, a plastic body with a smooth, intrinsically closed surface is first flocked to improve its product storage capacity. A “brush applicator” produced in this way does in fact keep its shape very well, but does not really have a satisfactory product storage capacity. Also, the tip of such a brush applicator is significantly harder than the tip of a brush applicator composed of a number of fine, relatively long bristles.
Finally, the customary brush applicators are relatively expensive to manufacture.
In light of this situation, the object of the invention is to create a brush applicator that is dimensionally stable over the long term, offers a good product storage capacity, and has a tip region that permits a precisely contoured application.